Highlights

A man lost his life while a woman was seriously injured when heavy stones fell on them from a balcony.

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The incident happened at the SN Medical College, Agra.

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The injured woman has been admitted in the ICU.

The Gorakhpur Medical College incident had not yet cooled down, when heavy stones falling from an overhead balcony at the SN Medical College claimed the life of a man, while a woman was seriously injured. The injured woman has been admitted in the ICU where she remains critical.

According to the Madan Mohan Gate Police Station sources, Pradeep Kumar (40), who had a friend's son admitted in the pediatric ward of the SN Medical College for treatment, was badly injured by the stones of a balcony that broke off from the newly constructed building and fell on his head while he was sleeping under it last night.

Rushed inside the hospital, he was declared dead on arrival by the doctors, while Shakuntala Devi, another woman sleeping nearby, was seriously injured and is now undergoing treatment in the ICU of the Medical College.

The deceased Pradeep alias Pappu was a resident of Basua village under Police Station Malpura area, whose friend Sher Khan's son had been admitted in the SN Medical College. Having arrived to see his friend's son, Pradeep could not bear the smell inside the hospital, so he came out of the building and lay down on the ground under the balcony to catch some sleep. The injured woman Shakuntala Devi had her grand daughter admitted in the same pediatric ward and was resting outside. Both got hit by the falling stones. Pappu got hit in the head and died on the spot while Shakuntala Devi was knocked unconscious. Pappu has left three kids and a wife behind him.

Coming to know about the incident, Samajwadi Party District President Ram Sahay Yadav reached the medical college and raised a ruckus. He filed a complaint against the medical college administration in the M M Gate Police Station, demanding the arrest of those involved in this incident.

Shakuntala Devi's son Arvind told India Today that his mother had come to the medical college from Firozabad to get her grand-daughter admitted in the SN Medical College after being referred here. However, baby was not admitted in the hospital for five hours and consequently, his mother could not return home on the same day and had to spend the night at the hospital. His daughter had serious difficulty in breathing and needed a ventilator, but the medical college doctors did not provide that. He was inside with his daughter, trying to take care of her when his mother met with this accident.

Meanwhile, talking to India Today, a civil engineer said that the building had been constructed at the cost of Rs 22 crore, but the stones had not been bolted into the walls, which caused them to lose grip on the cement and fell.

SN Medical College Principal Dr. Saroj Singh and Superintendant Dr. Ajay Agrawal said that this building had been constructed by 'Jal Nigam' and a notice will be served to them soon, although they could not explain why the building was not inspected for substandard construction by the college authorities while it was being built. They claimed that the building was yet to be handed over by the Jal Nigam to the hospital administration.

The building had been inaugurated last year by the former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and even the then District Magistrate Agra Pankaj Kumar had praised the quality of construction in this building. This building had also been inspected by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Dy. CM Dr. Dinesh Sharma recently and they had found several flaws in the construction, but they were not rectified.

At present, the SN Medical College has 15 departments and 9 departments are still running in buildings that are in a highly dilapidated condition. Over 2500 patients come to the medical college every day for treatment. In January 2017 too, several people were injured in the Psychiatry Department due to stones falling from the roof. In July, the same incident happened in the Out Patients Department, one room of the medical college's blood bank has completely fallen, but no action has been taken to improve the state of affairs in this medical college.

Dy. CM Dr. Dinesh Sharma had recently complained of mosquito infestation in the medical college and had instructed the medical college authorities to start fogging of the campus, but nothing was done. The Pediatrics department smells so bad that Pradeep had to come out of the building for fresh air and that became the reason for his death. Had he been inside the building, he would not have been hit by the falling stones.